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A year ago I interviewed Jon Ziglar on the growth of ParkMobile and his insistence on customer experience and revenue-driving partnerships. It’s amazing what a difference a year can make, due in large part to his commitment to those very things.

When we last spoke the company was focused on bringing major cities online to enable parking, payment, and reservation from the phone. Of course, Ziglar had more irons in the fire at that time, but Ziglar was coming off of the “re-platforming” of the company and shoring up the new management team.

Big vision pays off with EY

In late June, Ziglar was acknowledged for the growth of the ParkMobile Technology Platform, with the EY Southeast Entrepreneur of The Year award. True to form, in his acceptance speech, he joked about the fact that as a bootstrapper, they could “only pick up one table.”

Ziglar now goes on to compete for several national categories and the Entrepreneur of The Year National Overall Award in Palm Springs, California, on November 10, 2018. The EOY National Overall Award winner is then eligible for the EY World Entrepreneur of The Year Award in Monaco in June of 2019.

When asked why he felt he won, among a strong group of finalists, he said, “EY focuses on transformation, economic viability, and substantial businesses with big ideas. We have that.”

According to Ziglar, what started as parking has grown into something much more significant. He says, “ParkMobile is a parking company like Amazon is a book company. We may have started with a single-focused model, but we’re going somewhere far beyond that.”

ParkMobile wants to attend to every vehicle need conceivable.

Depositphotos

Ziglar says, “We’re doing something disruptive and transformative to something people have been doing for 100 years—parking. There has been little innovation here. There is old hardware, plenty of friction and a shortage of vision.”

But how much vision can be applied to parking? Well, every car needs to park. And to Ziglar it doesn’t end with parking, it begins there. At that moment, when the vehicle is parked, Ziglar’s vision and the greater growth opportunity comes to life.

You need to park, but you need other things to support you in your mobility. Things like:

Parking where there is a charging station

Parking in a location that has the right transit options

Making prior reservations to park where parking is finite (huge in cities like San Francisco, DC or New York, or on the 130 University campuses where ParkMobile is active).

And those are just the needs of the driver. What about the car’s needs? And what if the vehicle could communicate those in advance? Then, the parking session becomes an amazing opportunity.

Is the car ParkMobile’s customer or is the driver?

I asked Ziglar that, sort of as a joke, but he said, “It all depends. If it’s an autonomous car, particularly part of a rental fleet, then it’s definitely the car.”

It’s important to understand the services that need to be procured along the way. For instance, if the car needs an oil change or needs to be refueled, through ParkMobile’s network of partners, this can be handled during the car’s downtime. And increasingly, with autonomous vehicles and those connected through mobility, the car can communicate those needs to the network.

Significant partnerships drive the broadened vision of the ParkMobile platform

It’s not just autonomous cars in rental fleets that can benefit from ParkMobile’s network.

Now, every BMW coming off the line is fully integrated with ParkMobile. Ziglar says, “if you have an account, the car can park itself. If you make a reservation to park, your in-car navigation will direct you to the specific parking deck you are reserved with. It works from the head unit in the car or on your phone.”

In addition to BMW, ParkMobile has pilots going with 3 major auto manufacturers and discussions going with most of them. Here’s where vision comes in again. Ziglar says his goal is “to be integrated into every new car in the next 5 years.”

It takes a major customer base to seal the deal with strategic partners

Growth at ParkMobile has always been a goal and a measure of success, but it is hitting a tipping point.

According to Ziglar, “It took three years to get to the first million users. Now, we’re at 10 million. We gained our last million customers in the last 91 days.” You can tell this is a leader that knows his numbers because it wasn’t “in the last quarter” it was “in the last 91 days.”

The infrastructure of the autonomous car

Ziglar has made it his goal for ParkMobile to develop the infrastructure to support autonomous cars in advance of their arrival.

Essentially every market ParkMobile operates in is now autonomous-enabled. Whether those cars need a place to rest when they aren’t in service, or whether they need servicing to keep them on top of their game, ParkMobile is expanding their integrated network to ensure the car’s (of the drivers?) needs are filled.

Financial management of a company that is in hypergrowth

Since this column is about raising capital and managing money, I asked Ziglar how he is funding this level of growth.

He said, “We’ve done what others in our space have done by a factor of two with half the people in half the time because we’re obsessively focused.”

He further says, “We haven’t had the funds to focus on distractions. In contrast to people who burn through $30M a year, we have built a viable, profitable business.”

Founder & CEO of Modo Modo Agency, an award-winning strategic marketing firm. I have helped over 200 companies maximize brand value, generate revenue, grow customers and successfully exit. I authored AdVenture, An Outsider’s Inside View of Getting an Entrepreneur to Market, I have a degree in management & have served as president of AMA and BMA Atlanta. Awards: Fastest Growing Women-Owned Business, Enterprising Women Entrepreneur, Women Who Mean Business & Agency Marketer of the Year. I love giving back through mentoring and volunteering with my company’s DoGooder program. Twitter: @MoiraVetter